Tilting At Mekong WindMills

About the Book

Tilting at Mekong Windmills is the true story of four participants in the Vietnam tragedy: John Paul Vann, a very senior American civilian; Philip (Ted) Serong, an Australian Army brigadier who became a CIA agent; and two Vietnamese siblings on opposite sides of the struggle. All made significant contributions to the war effort but met undeserved fates. For the author, this is a work of admiration for Vann and Serong. Heroes, who performed extraordinary service for the American side, both made strategic recommendations that might have led to a more favorable outcome. The other characters reflect the irony of the times. All were “tilting at windmills”.

About the Author

Marvin Baker Schaffer is superbly qualified to write this narrative about the Vietnam War. He is a World War II veteran who served in the Army of Occupation in Germany before devoting ten years designing new artillery for the US Army that was pivotal in both the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. As an analyst for the RAND Corporation, he then spent a year in Vietnam working on issues critical to the war. He was a confidant of one of the book’s heroic characters, Ted Serong, and had met the other, John Paul Vann. His views about the war are timely and worth pondering.